Permission to Build: House Republicans’ Push for Permitting Reform

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a brand-new episode of the Republican Study Committee’s (RSC) Right to the Point podcast, Rep. Pete Stauber (MN-08), sits down with Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-04), Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, to discuss the urgent need for permitting reform to achieve American energy independence, bring more jobs back to America, and bolster national security.

The Congressmen explain how lengthy and unpredictable permitting processes can drive up costs for American consumers and leave the U.S. more reliant on foreign resources needed to power the economy. Rep. Westerman discusses his SPEED Act, which passed the House in December and awaits a vote in the Senate. The bill would modernize NEPA to help streamline the permitting process, shorten timelines, and reduce the frequency of frivolous litigation, while maintaining environmental and labor standards.

The Congressmen also talk about the importance of expanding domestic production of energy and critical minerals, particularly as demand for resources continues to grow. A more predictable permitting process would give American companies greater certainty to invest, build, and create jobs at home. Reps. Stauber and Westerman underscore the need to pass meaningful permitting reform before the 119th Congress ends to ensure America can build and produce what it needs at home.

You can listen to the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Read highlights from the conversation below:

Rep. Pete Stauber (MN-08): “Can you tell us about the SPEED Act and why it is important to us? You and I both serve on the Natural Resources Committee…Can you talk about the SPEED Act, its particulars, and how we continue to get across the Senate?”

Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-04): “It’s hard to build things in America…And when we talk about building things, we're talking about infrastructure, roads, bridges, navigable waterways, railroads, pipelines, all of that kind of infrastructure. It’s just very cumbersome to build it…We want to be able to go through the process in a timely manner, and that has all kinds of positive implications. It gives investors confidence. It keeps us on the front edge of production and technology…If you look at all the things that were invented in the United States, and it happened because people knew they could have an idea and they could make it work, and what the current regulatory structure has done is put a wet blanket on American innovation, on using our own natural resources. It’s made us dependent on other countries for critical minerals. It’s made us dependent on other countries for the resources that we have, that we could be using to make Americans’ lives better, both in having good jobs and building strong communities, and also in making the cost of everyday goods less.”

Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-04): “It’s also discouraging to see how much better our country could be if we had a streamlined permitting process. And we know that we build things here in America better than anybody else. We protect human rights. We protect the environment, and we can’t keep exporting our environmental guilt to some other country that’s actually doing a worse job with the environment. Because when we export that environmental guilt, we’re also exporting jobs, we’re exporting wealth, and we’re destroying rural communities.”

Rep. Pete Stauber (MN-08): “We need these critical minerals. It’s national security. And if we had the SPEED Act into law, that would reduce the timelines to be able to get a mine up and running without compromising the environment or labor standards.”

Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-04): “NEPA is a process. We want to go through the process, but we want to make the process happen more quickly…After you’ve gone through the whole NEPA process, got your record of decision, like right now in the law, you’ve got six years where you can file a suit and a judge can issue an injunction and stop the project…We saw this in Arizona. Yep. An activist comes along, files a lawsuit. A sympathetic judge says, ‘Okay, I’m going to issue an injunction.’ So, like the Resolution Copper mine in Superior, Arizona, they spent decades getting it permitted, spent $2 billion…A lawsuit was filed, stopped development of the copper mine, which is a critical mineral that’s needed like no other right now, and just this year, in 2026, they were able to start back on the mine again.”

Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-04): “This is bipartisan. Some of the time restraints were brought to us by Democrat Members. And everybody recognizes that we need fair permitting. And this is not favoring one technology or one project over the other. So if you’re developing renewable energy or if you’re developing fossil fuels, it’s the same permitting process and you get a fair shake and you don’t get the heavy hand of one administration versus a heavy hand of another administration, we call that permitting ping pong.”

Rep. Pete Stauber (MN-08): “It’s a bipartisan piece of legislation which is really good for all industries. And, you know, we can talk whether it's the oil and gas industry, wind or solar, the mining, forestry, transmission lines, etc. all that [the] SPEED Act will help every single industry across this great nation…We want to make sure that we can get it across the Senate. Like you say, time is running out in this 119th Congress.”

Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-04): “Americans have created a system where theoretically you have a fair shake, you have a fair chance. You get to try your ideas, you don’t get to side step environmental laws or anything like that. You play with the rules. But we’ve got a system now where you can’t play by the rules. The rules are stacked against Americans that are wanting to innovate, Americans that are wanting to do good, to make us more secure, to make us more economically viable. And it can’t happen under this regulatory process. And we’re seeing businesses close. We’re seeing foreign competitors take advantage of our environmental laws and manipulating our markets. And it just shouldn’t be that way. We should allow Americans to compete on a global market and to be able to do what we’ve always done, and that’s innovate.”

Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-04): “ [In] 1995, we produced three times more copper than China. Today, they produce 11 times more copper than we do. We have two copper smelters and they have over 60. It’s not because we don’t have copper deposits in the U.S. It’s because we quit mining and refining copper and we know the economic impacts…Just our mining sector alone, with $140 billion of raw material per year, provides a $4 trillion impact to our economy.”

Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-04): “We have abundant oil and gas. We have the ability to produce more electrical generation from multiple kinds of sources. We could be generating nuclear power. We could be innovating and leading with battery technology so that you could have grid level battery storage and make some of these renewable technologies more efficient. But if we can’t innovate and build, and if we don’t have the resources to do that, that puts us at an extreme disadvantage.”

Rep. Pete Stauber (MN-08): “Like by 2040, we’re supposed to, all experts say, we’re going to use twice as much copper by 2040 than we’re using today. Where are we going to get that? Let’s do it here. The good Lord blessed the United States…with these minerals.”

Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-04): “If you’re concerned about cost of living, think about when we’re not making this stuff in America anymore, and a foreign country determines what the prices are going to be. That’s right. And they don’t have a public service commission or people that are out there looking at it saying, no, that’s too high. You’re gouging the consumer…They’re going to use their control of resources to bankrupt our country if we keep going this way.”